A man has been sentenced to life term for murdering and robbing his friend of Rs 5.5 lakh by a Delhi court which pulled up the police for its lapses in the investigation.
Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain said laxity in cases of heinous crimes by the police is not appreciable in any manner as such lapses may break the chain of circumstances which may prove fatal in bringing home guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt.
Considering the lapses found in the probe, the court has sent a copy of its verdict to the Commissioner of Delhi Police to "enable him to take remedial steps as he deems fit with a hope that in future no such lapse would be found during investigation".
The court also imposed a fine of Rs five lakh on convict Mohd Yasir and said that the amount be given to the family of victim Mohd Zuber as compensation.
The court acquitted co-accused Mohd Faizan.
"It is also explicit from the record that the main reason to commit the murder was to rob the amount of Rs 5.50 lakh, which he (the deceased) was carrying. Though the deceased was a friend of the convict, yet he killed him in the greed of said amount.
"Thus, at the time of imposing sentence, efforts should also be made to realise the convict that crime never pays and if guilt is proved, he shall not have only to undergo the sentence of imprisonment but also to bear the financial burden in the form of fine or compensation," the court said.
According to the prosecution, Ikhtikar Ahmed had lodged a complaint that on June 14, 2012 his nephew Mohd Zuber along with his friend Mohd Yasir had come to his shop in Chandni Mahal here and asked for Rs 5.5 lakh to buy mobile phones as he used to deal in sale-purchase of the gadgets.
Zuber had already given Rs five lakh to the dealer and needed Rs 5.5 lakh to pay the balance amount and Ahmed gave him the money, it said.
Zuber and Yasir took the money and left the shop and later on the victim's phone was switched off. Ahmed had suspicion that Zuber was kidnapped by Yasir in the greed of money.
During investigation, Yasir and his friend Mohd Faizan were arrested and they admitted that they had murdered Zuber with a surgical blade and took away Rs 5.5 lakh from him. His body was kept in a car.
